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15 SETTLE AGAINST JESUITS

By Walter V. Robinson
Boston Globe
January 10, 2003

http://www.boston.com/globe/spotlight/abuse/print4/011003_jesuits.htm

Fourteen men, 10 of them former students at Boston College High School,
will receive about $5.2 million to settle claims against a Jesuit priest
who they say molested them during the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s - often
forcibly after pinning them to the floor during wrestling matches.

The Rev. James Talbot was removed from his position at Cheverus High
School in Portland, Maine, in 1998 after the first of his many alleged
victims came forward. Last September, Talbot was indicted on rape charges
for assaults that allegedly occurred when he taught at B.C. High from
1972 to 1980.

Another alleged victim of a second Jesuit, the Rev. Francis J. McManus,
received a settlement of about $600,000 for his claim that McManus molested
him while McManus taught at the Dorchester school in the early 1980s.

Altogether, the 15 men will receive payments of $5.8 million, ranging
from $75,000 for one alleged victim to a settlement of over $1 million
for one of Talbot's alleged victims. The cases were settled through mediation,
with all 15 claimants represented by Boston lawyer Roderick MacLeish Jr.

At least two additional civil claims against Talbot are expected to be
filed, by two former B.C. High students who have retained lawyer Mitchell
Garabedian.

B.C. High President William J. Kemeza and Daniel J. Gleason, the school's
attorney, said that 11 of the 15, including the alleged McManus victim,
were B.C. High students who were allegedly molested in the 1970s and early
1980s. Two were teenage boys who worked at a Jesuit residence in the South
End where Talbot lived. And the final two were students at Cheverus, the
Jesuit high school in Portland, where Talbot allegedly sexually abused
them in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

The costs of the settlement will be shared by the two high schools, the
Jesuit New England province, the Diocese of Portland, and several insurance
carriers.

Kemeza, who announced the settlements last night, said that since the
former students started to come forward last March, the school has instituted
policies that he said ''will ensure that nothing like this will ever happen
again.''

Kemeza, who attended the mediation sessions that led to the settlements,
said many of the victims believed the school's administrators two decades
ago should have known what was happening.

''I often wondered: What was going on back then?'' Kemeza said. Sometimes,
he said, ''it's amazing that people don't see what's going on right in
front of them.''

Kemeza was referring to Talbot's frequent insistence that soccer players
he coached, and some hockey players too, strip down to their jockstraps
and wrestle with him in front of others - a practice that was openly whispered
about among students. In interviews early last year, several of the former
students said Talbot later lured them to one-on-one sessions, where he
pinned them to mats and molested them.

Last March, the Globe obtained documents from about the time Talbot was
transferred to Cheverus in 1980 that hinted that both schools knew something
inappropriate had happened.

Talbot was removed in 1998 after a 16th alleged victim, Cheverus graduate
Michael Doherty, filed a lawsuit in Maine. His case was settled in 2001.
Talbot's criminal indictment was made possible because he was in Maine
for 18 years, and the clock on the statute of limitations in Massachusetts
stopped running.

MacLeish and Kemeza both credited Brockton mediator Paul A. Finn and
his associate, retired Superior Court Judge John Tierney, for the compassionate
way they treated the victims and their efforts to reach agreement.

A decade ago, it was Finn who mediated settlements involving more than
100 victims of priest pedophile James R. Porter. Last September, Finn
oversaw the settlement of 36 abuse claims against the Providence diocese
for $13.5 million. Finn had also mediated a prospective settlement of
between $15 million and $30 million for 86 plaintiffs against former priest
John J. Geoghan last year until the Archdiocese of Boston backed away
from the deal.

With the Boston Archdiocese now facing claims against priests from 500
other people, Finn has recently become involved again to help mediator
Paul Sugarman.

15 MEN REACH SETTLEMENT ON ABUSE CLAIMS

Associated Press
January 10, 2003

Boston -- Fifteen men who said they were abused by clergy who taught
at two Jesuit-run high schools in New England have settled their claims,
their laywer said.

Attorney Roderick MacLeish did not disclose the dollar amounts of the
settlements but called them "fair and equitable." The Boston
Globe reported Friday that the settlements totaled $5.8 million and ranged
from $75,000 to more than $1 million.

Eleven of the men claimed they were abused while they were students at
Boston College High School in the 1970s and early 1980s. Ten men named
the Rev. James F. Talbot, a hockey and soccer coach, and the other cited
the Rev. Francis J. McManus.

Talbot's accusers said he wrestled them one on one, often pinning them
to the floor.

"We hope that those who have been hurt, the brothers and sons of
the BC High family, receive some consolation through this settlement,"
William Kemezza, president of Boston College High, said in a statement
to WCVB-TV.

Talbot, 64, was also accused by the other four alleged victims. Two worked
as teenagers at a Jesuit residence in Boston where Talbot lived, and two
were students at Cheverus High School in Portland, Maine, where Talbot
later taught.

Talbot and McManus did not immediately return calls seeking comment.

Talbot pleaded innocent in September to rape and assault charges. Prosecutors
said that in the 1970s, he plied three of his Boston College High soccer
players with beer before challenging them to "aggression drills"
- wrestling matches that were pretexts for rape.

Talbot taught at Boston College High from 1972 to 1980, then transferred
to Cheverus. He was removed from there in 1998 after a 16th man, Cheverus
graduate Michael Doherty, filed a lawsuit in Maine. That case was settled
in 2001.

The new settlements were reached individually, and the last was completed
Thursday night, MacLeish said.

MacLeish called the discussions "exemplary," saying officials
from Boston College High and the Jesuit order, known as the Society of
Jesus, spoke at length with alleged victims and their families.

"It was done individually, it was done with humanity, in a way that
didn't pit people against each other," said MacLeish, who also represents
247 alleged victims of clergy sex abuse suing the Roman Catholic Archdiocese
of Boston.

The costs of the settlements will be shared by the two high schools,
the Jesuit New England province, the Diocese of Portland and several insurance
carriers, the Globe reported.

In a related matter, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Worcester released
a financial report showing that it and its insurance companies have spent
more than $2.1 million to settle sexual abuse allegations dating back
several years.

Insurance paid about $1.3 million; the remainder was paid by the Worcester
diocese.

To help cover its losses, the diocese has closed a home for people with
AIDS.